3927. Robert Southey to John May, 5 December 1822

 

Address: To/ John May Esqre-/ 4. Tavistock Street/ Bedford Square/ London
Stamped: KESWICK/ 298
Postmark: E/ 9 DE 9/ 1822
Endorsement: No. 229 1822/ Robert Southey/ Keswick 5th 
December/ recd. 9th do./ ansd. 28th do.
MS: Robert Southey Collection, Harry Ransom Center, The University of Texas at Austin. ALS; 4p.
Previously published: Charles Ramos (ed.), The Letters of Robert Southey to John May: 1797–1838 (Austin, Texas, 1976), pp. 197–199.

Keswick. 5. Dec. 1822.
My dear friend

The postmark upon your letter excited, as you supposed it would, an apprehension in me which I was truly glad to have removed by its contents. If the weather which we have had here has extended to the Lands end, you may very possibly be detained there still, for of all the seasons which we remember, this has been the worst, for continual rain & tempest. Since Harry left us,

(1)

Henry Herbert Southey had left Keswick on 2 October 1822.

I believe we have never had two dry days in succession.

Mrs C. & her daugher are gone upon a round of visits, the extent of which they hardly know themselves. They went first to Derby

(2)

Sara Coleridge took her daughter to visit Elizabeth Evans (1758–1836), of Darley, near Derby. Sara and Samuel Taylor Coleridge had stayed with Mrs Evans in 1796, when there was a possibility that Coleridge would tutor her children.

meaning to remain there a week, – & they have staid a month. Their next move is to Clarkson’s who is living near Ipswich, – there I suppose they will be in a day or two, & may probably pass their Christmas. From thence they go to Highgate,

(3)

To see Samuel Taylor Coleridge.

– lastly to Somersetshire to visit Poole, – & to Ottery

(4)

Chanter’s House, Ottery St Mary, Devon, was the home of James Coleridge (1759–1836), one of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s older brothers, and the father of John Taylor Coleridge, a close friend of John May.

if they are invited. It may be prudent for you to manage that Saras visit to John Coleridge does not take place during a vacation; – they

(5)

During a visit to Keswick in August–September 1822, John May’s son, John May (1802–1879), had become infatuated with Southey’s niece Sara Coleridge; however, she seems to have taken the matter lightly. Sara and her mother did not reach Ottery St Mary until May 1823. On this visit Sara became secretly engaged to her first cousin, Henry Nelson Coleridge.

can have no other opportunity of meeting; – & as matters now are, on this side at least, you may then be perfectly <at> ease. She is heartwhole, – the affair never gave her half the uneasiness it did you.

John, I dare say, will fall in at Exeter

(6)

John May (1802–1879) entered Exeter College, Oxford, in 1823.

with the son of my good friend Lightfoot. – My name will naturally draw them together. I have never <seen> young Lightfoot, but from all which I have heard of him, his sterling qualities would render him a valuable acquaintance for John, – if they should take to each other.

Adam Clark has written me a very friendly letter, which I have not answered, because I have been expecting to receive the manuscript. I shall not however delay answering it much longer in that expectation.

(7)

Southey’s letter to Clarke does not survive (if it was written). Clarke had probably written to Southey concerning his forthcoming Memoirs of the Wesley Family (1823), no. 598 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. Clarke’s book was a reply to Southey’s The Life of Wesley; and the Rise and Progress of Methodism (1820).

And now to that pleasant paragraph in your letter relating to the strong beer. Direct it to Mr Cookson, Kendal,

(8)

Thomas Cookson (1771–1833), Kendal wool merchant and friend of Wordsworth. Cookson had also stored the barrel of strong beer that May sent to Southey in 1820.

& put an S upon the direction, that he may know it is for me. The day that <this> your xxx intimation arrived, I drew a cork upon the strength of it, & indulged in your health. Strong beer is so good a thing, that xx even if my lot had fallen in a land flowing with milk & honey,

(9)

Exodus 33: 3.

I should wish for a rivulet of it; – & then I would always bottle enough to be provided against a dry season.

Since I wrote to you, – or rather since Harry departed, I have been sedulously employed, tho not always productively; – about half my time having been bestowed upon a collection of papers from Frere, – which is of course preparatory work.

(10)

Southey intended to use these papers for the second volume of his History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).

I finished the QR. paper upon Gregoires book,

(11)

Southey’s review of Henri Grégoire (1750–1831), Histoire des Sectes Religieuse, qui, Depuis de Commencement du Siecle Dernier Jusqu’a l’Epoque Actuelle, sont Nées, se sont Modifiées, se sont Éteintes dans le Quatre Parties du Monde (1814), Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), published 15 February 1823. The book was no. 2838 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.

– which is to pay my Christmas bills, – I have gone on with the B of the Church, (of which I am now composing the most important chapter, – a view of the R Catholic system)

(12)

Southey’s Book of the Church, 2 vols (London, 1824), I, pp. 283–320.

– & I am about – invitâ Minervâ

(13)

‘Unwilling Minerva’ is a literal English transcription of the common Latin phrase ‘invita Minerva’. As Minerva was the goddess of poetry, Southey means he faced the task of composing a poem without inspiration.

– to compose an Ode, – an odious employment.

(14)

‘Scotland, an Ode, Written after the King’s Visit to that Country. By Robert Southey, Esq. Poet Laureat’, The Bijou: Or Annual of Literature and the Arts (London, 1828), pp. 81–88. This was Southey’s New Year’s ode for 1823 in fulfilment of his obligations as Poet Laureate.

Your intelligence of John Coleridge is the last that I have received. It is a long while since I have had any news from London, so that I know nothing concerning Giffords state; – but if he recovers, – it must I think, still be necessary that the succession should be settled. My part is done, – both to him & to Murray

(15)

Southey to [John Murray] 1 November 1822, Letter 3911. Southey strongly urged that John Taylor Coleridge should succeed William Gifford as editor of the Quarterly Review.

I expressed myself in strong terms; & as something was said that the successor must be a person in whom the Government could confide I wrote also to Wynn.

(16)

Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 2 November 1822, Letter 3913.

If the arrangement is made, I hope & believe that it will be both for the public good, & for the benefit of all parties concerned. I do not think that so proper an editor could have been found in any other person. And I believe that instead of injuring him in his profession, it will advance him in it, & save him from the necessity of drudging at it, & sacrificing himself to it, – for a miserable sacrifice it is when a man who is capable of being something better, becomes a mere lawyer. – Few things will give me more pleasure than to direct my communications to him.

We are going on well, thank God, – tho we had a frightful alarm about Cuthbert a few weeks ago. He had an attack of the spurious croup,

(17)

Croup is a respiratory infection, whose main symptom is a barking cough. It is usually caused by a virus and affects many young children. It was known at this time as ‘false croup’, to distinguish it from laryngeal diphtheria, formerly known as ‘true croup’, a much more serious bacterial infection that also produced a barking cough.

from which he recovered much sooner than his mother did from the effects of her anxiety. His archbishoprick (which he is still bent upon possessing) being in the future in rus,

(18)

‘in the countryside’.

Bedford has made him a rural Dean, – as the first step & at present his Very Reverence goes by that appellation. I have shown him pictures of Lambeth & Canterbury,

(19)

Lambeth Palace, London home of the Archbishop of Canterbury; and Canterbury Cathedral, the cathedral of his archdiocese.

& it would amuse you to hear the gravity with which he talks of those places, – as if they were indefeasably entailed upon him.

The little girls

(20)

Bertha, Isabel and Kate Southey.

are very happy, – working on & getting on under their mother, Edith May & myself, – my share is confined to some of the languages. Your goddaughter is in excellent health & spirits; & yet it must needs be a disappointment that she cannot visit London this ensuing spring, Mrs C- & Sara being absent. You saw her during her grasshopper season;

(21)

May had seen Edith May Southey in August–September 1822, when grasshoppers were abundant. But this is also a reference to Aesop’s (c. 620–c. 560 BC), Fables and the story of the ‘Ant and the Grasshopper’, used to illustrate the value of hard work – the grasshopper sings all summer, while the ant stores up food for the winter. Southey implies that while Edith May Southey enjoyed herself in the summer months, like the grasshopper, she also worked hard at other times.

but you would not be less pleased were you to see her as intent & chearful in business, as she ever was in pleasure; constantly employed, – alert & active. – Hartley is here, – he came over yesterday for a few days.

I suppose my first volume

(22)

The first volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).

will very shortly appear, – & am curious to see what will be said about the payment for it.

(23)

John Murray had promised Southey a thousand guineas for this work; however, that had been when it was only intended to comprise two volumes, rather than three; see Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 23 July 1813, Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Four, Letter 2284.

Upon that subject you shall hear from me as I know what is proposed. God bless you – present our kindest regards to Mrs May & your household – accept them yourself – especially from your god Daughter, & believe me ever truly & affectionately yours

RS.

Notes

1. Henry Herbert Southey had left Keswick on 2 October 1822.[back]
2. Sara Coleridge took her daughter to visit Elizabeth Evans (1758–1836), of Darley, near Derby. Sara and Samuel Taylor Coleridge had stayed with Mrs Evans in 1796, when there was a possibility that Coleridge would tutor her children.[back]
3. To see Samuel Taylor Coleridge.[back]
4. Chanter’s House, Ottery St Mary, Devon, was the home of James Coleridge (1759–1836), one of Samuel Taylor Coleridge’s older brothers, and the father of John Taylor Coleridge, a close friend of John May.[back]
5. During a visit to Keswick in August–September 1822, John May’s son, John May (1802–1879), had become infatuated with Southey’s niece Sara Coleridge; however, she seems to have taken the matter lightly. Sara and her mother did not reach Ottery St Mary until May 1823. On this visit Sara became secretly engaged to her first cousin, Henry Nelson Coleridge.[back]
6. John May (1802–1879) entered Exeter College, Oxford, in 1823.[back]
7. Southey’s letter to Clarke does not survive (if it was written). Clarke had probably written to Southey concerning his forthcoming Memoirs of the Wesley Family (1823), no. 598 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library. Clarke’s book was a reply to Southey’s The Life of Wesley; and the Rise and Progress of Methodism (1820).[back]
8. Thomas Cookson (1771–1833), Kendal wool merchant and friend of Wordsworth. Cookson had also stored the barrel of strong beer that May sent to Southey in 1820.[back]
9. Exodus 33: 3.[back]
10. Southey intended to use these papers for the second volume of his History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).[back]
11. Southey’s review of Henri Grégoire (1750–1831), Histoire des Sectes Religieuse, qui, Depuis de Commencement du Siecle Dernier Jusqu’a l’Epoque Actuelle, sont Nées, se sont Modifiées, se sont Éteintes dans le Quatre Parties du Monde (1814), Quarterly Review, 28 (October 1822), published 15 February 1823. The book was no. 2838 in the sale catalogue of Southey’s library.[back]
12. Southey’s Book of the Church, 2 vols (London, 1824), I, pp. 283–320.[back]
13. ‘Unwilling Minerva’ is a literal English transcription of the common Latin phrase ‘invita Minerva’. As Minerva was the goddess of poetry, Southey means he faced the task of composing a poem without inspiration.[back]
14. ‘Scotland, an Ode, Written after the King’s Visit to that Country. By Robert Southey, Esq. Poet Laureat’, The Bijou: Or Annual of Literature and the Arts (London, 1828), pp. 81–88. This was Southey’s New Year’s ode for 1823 in fulfilment of his obligations as Poet Laureate.[back]
15. Southey to [John Murray] 1 November 1822, Letter 3911. Southey strongly urged that John Taylor Coleridge should succeed William Gifford as editor of the Quarterly Review.[back]
16. Southey to Charles Watkin Williams Wynn, 2 November 1822, Letter 3913.[back]
17. Croup is a respiratory infection, whose main symptom is a barking cough. It is usually caused by a virus and affects many young children. It was known at this time as ‘false croup’, to distinguish it from laryngeal diphtheria, formerly known as ‘true croup’, a much more serious bacterial infection that also produced a barking cough.[back]
18. ‘in the countryside’.[back]
19. Lambeth Palace, London home of the Archbishop of Canterbury; and Canterbury Cathedral, the cathedral of his archdiocese.[back]
21. May had seen Edith May Southey in August–September 1822, when grasshoppers were abundant. But this is also a reference to Aesop’s (c. 620–c. 560 BC), Fables and the story of the ‘Ant and the Grasshopper’, used to illustrate the value of hard work – the grasshopper sings all summer, while the ant stores up food for the winter. Southey implies that while Edith May Southey enjoyed herself in the summer months, like the grasshopper, she also worked hard at other times.[back]
22. The first volume of Southey’s History of the Peninsular War (1823–1832).[back]
23. John Murray had promised Southey a thousand guineas for this work; however, that had been when it was only intended to comprise two volumes, rather than three; see Southey to Grosvenor Charles Bedford, 23 July 1813, Collected Letters of Robert Southey. Part Four, Letter 2284.[back]
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